The Old Testament · The Prophetic Books · Book 45 of 73
Prophecy in Zechariah
No prophet is quoted more often in the Gospels' account of Christ's last days. Zechariah sees horsemen patrolling the earth and a lampstand fed by two olive trees, and he foretells a humble king on a donkey, a shepherd valued at thirty pieces of silver, and a people who look on the one they have pierced and mourn. Revelation borrows his images more than any book but Daniel and Ezekiel.
In progress: 8 passages so far
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The book at a glance
Zechariah prophesied in Jerusalem from 520 BC, with Haggai, after the return from exile in Babylon (1:1; Ezra 5:1). The people were poor and the Temple lay in ruins; his task was to encourage the governor Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua to rebuild it. Most scholars hold that chapters 1–8 come from Zechariah himself, while chapters 9–14, with their own headings (9:1; 12:1) and a different style, were added later by other prophets in his tradition, often called Second Zechariah. The Church receives the whole book as inspired Scripture either way.
The two halves look forward differently. Chapters 1–6 are eight night visions, an early apocalypse with horses, lampstands, a flying scroll and chariots, explained by an angel. Chapters 9–14 are prophecy about a coming king, a rejected shepherd and the final day of the LORD. The Gospel writers read the second half as a map of the Passion; Revelation takes up the first half's images for the end.
Key to the labels
How a passage stands
Fulfilled Accomplished in history, above all in Christ.
Unfolding Being worked out now in the life of the Church.
Future Clearly still to come at Christ's return.
Mystery Its meaning or moment is not yet settled.
What kind of passage it is
Prophecy God's word through a prophet, or Christ, about what will come.
Promise A pledge God makes, kept over generations.
Type A person or event that foreshadows Christ or the Church.
Image A picture Scripture returns to and completes at the end.
Apocalypse A vision unveiling history from heaven's side, in symbols.
More on the labels
| Passage | Subject | Standing |
|---|
| 1:7–17; 6:1–8 | The horsemen and the chariots | Mystery |
| 3:1–10; 6:9–15 | Joshua the high priest and the Branch | Fulfilled |
| 4:1–14 | The lampstand and the two olive trees | Unfolding Mystery |
| 9:9–10 | Your king comes, riding on a donkey | Fulfilled Future |
| 11:12–13 | Thirty pieces of silver | Fulfilled |
| 12:10; 13:1 | They will look on him whom they have pierced | Fulfilled Future |
| 13:7–9 | Strike the shepherd | Fulfilled |
| 14:1–21 | The day of the LORD and the LORD king over all | Future |
The passages
“These are the ones whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.” (1:10)
- Reading
- The first night vision shows “a man mounted on a red horse standing in the shadows among myrtle trees” (1:8), with other horses behind him. They have ridden through the world and report that “the whole earth rests quietly” (1:11), while Jerusalem still lies in ruins. The angel intercedes, and God answers with comfort: “I return to Jerusalem in mercy” (1:16). The last vision answers the first: four chariots come out “from between two mountains,” drawn by red, black, white and dappled horses (6:1–3), and go out to the four winds.
- And Revelation
- John's four horsemen ride horses of the same colors: white, red, black and pale green (Revelation 6:1–8). In Zechariah the horses are God's patrols over the earth; in Revelation they are released when the Lamb opens the seals. In both, nothing happens on earth that heaven does not see and govern. See Revelation 6 at The Lamb's Victory.
- Why mystery
- The text does not explain every color, and interpreters differ on whether the colors carry separate meanings or simply mark different teams. The point is not a code but a comfort: the LORD sees, and he has returned in mercy.
“Hear, O Joshua, high priest! You and your associates who sit before you! For they are signs of things to come! I will surely bring my servant the Branch.” (3:8)
- Reading
- In the heavenly court the accuser stands against Joshua, the high priest, who wears filthy garments. The LORD rebukes the accuser: “Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (3:2). The angel orders, “Remove his filthy garments,” and says to Joshua, “Look, I have taken your guilt from you” (3:4). Then comes the promise of “my servant the Branch” and a day when God will “take away the guilt of that land in one day” (3:9). In chapter 6 Zechariah is told to make crowns and set one on Joshua's head, saying, “There is a man whose name is Branch” who “will build the temple of the LORD” (6:11–12). The NABRE note explains that the other crown was meant for a royal ruler of David's line, which Persian rule did not allow.
- Fulfilled
- “Branch” is a title for the Davidic Messiah in the prophets (Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15). The Hebrew name Joshua is the name Jesus. The Church sees in this priest, crowned and promised a Branch who builds God's temple, a figure of Christ, who is both king and high priest (Hebrews 4:14; 7:1–3), who took away the world's guilt in one day on the Cross, and whose own risen body is the true temple (John 2:19–21; The Temple of His Body). The accuser silenced before God returns in Revelation, thrown down by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:10–11).
“Not by might, and not by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (4:6)
- Reading
- The prophet sees “a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on top of it” and seven lamps, “and beside it are two olive trees” (4:2–3). The angel explains that Zerubbabel will finish the Temple, not by force but by God's Spirit, and that whoever “has scorned such a day of small things” will rejoice when the work is done (4:10). The two olive trees are “the two anointed ones” who stand by the Lord of the whole earth (4:14), in Zechariah's day most likely the high priest Joshua and the Davidic governor Zerubbabel.
- And Revelation
- Revelation takes up the image for its two witnesses, who prophesy in sackcloth and are called “the two olive trees and the two lampstands” (Revelation 11:3–4). The NABRE note on Revelation reads them as the martyrs who stand in the presence of the Lord; many of the Fathers took them to be Enoch and Elijah, who will return before the end; others see in them the Church's witness of law and prophets, or of Moses and Elijah, whose signs they work (Revelation 11:5–6).
- Why two labels
- The word of 4:6 is how the Church is always built, by the Spirit and not by might. The identity of Revelation's two witnesses is not settled; see Malachi 3:23–24 on Elijah.
“Exult greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! Behold: your king is coming to you, a just savior is he, Humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
- Reading
- The king who comes is not a warrior on a war horse. He removes the instruments of war: “He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem” (9:10). “He will proclaim peace to the nations,” and his rule will reach “to the ends of the earth.”
- Fulfilled
- On Palm Sunday Jesus chooses to fulfill this prophecy deliberately. Matthew writes, “This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled,” and quotes the verse (Matthew 21:4–5); John cites it too (John 12:14–15). The Catechism describes the King of glory entering his city “riding on an ass,” citing this verse (CCC 559). His kingdom is won by humility and peace, not by force.
- Future
- The peace he proclaims to the nations, with every bow of war banished, is still awaited in its fullness. The same King will come again, this time on a white horse to end all war (Revelation 19:11).
“And they counted out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.”
- Reading
- In an acted parable the prophet plays a shepherd of a doomed flock and is dismissed by those he served. They pay him off with thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave (Exodus 21:32). The LORD calls it with irony “the handsome price at which they valued me,” and the prophet throws the silver “into the treasury in the house of the LORD” (11:13). The insult to the shepherd is an insult to God.
- Fulfilled
- Judas is paid “thirty pieces of silver” to hand Jesus over (Matthew 26:15). In remorse he throws the money into the Temple, and the priests use it to buy the potter's field (Matthew 27:3–10). Matthew sees the whole scene foretold: “they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of a man with a price on his head” (Matthew 27:9).
- Note
- Matthew attributes the quotation to Jeremiah. The NABRE note calls this puzzling, since no such text is in that book. A common explanation is that Matthew blends Zechariah's words with Jeremiah's: the potter (Jeremiah 18–19) and the field bought for silver (Jeremiah 32:6–9), naming the greater prophet. Interpreters differ, and the difficulty is admitted honestly.
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of mercy and supplication, so that when they look on him whom they have thrust through, they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child…”
- Reading
- One of the most mysterious figures in the prophets. God pours out a spirit of mercy, and the people grieve over someone they have pierced, as one grieves over a firstborn. The NABRE note calls the victim enigmatic and gives another possible reading of the Hebrew: “they shall look to me concerning him.” Then “a fountain will be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to purify from sin and uncleanness” (13:1).
- Fulfilled
- John, standing at the Cross, sees the soldier's lance open Jesus' side, and blood and water flow out. He writes: “And again another passage says: ‘They will look upon him whom they have pierced’” (John 19:37). In the blood and water from his side, the fountain opened for cleansing, the Church sees figures of Baptism and the Eucharist (CCC 1225).
- Future
- Revelation opens with the same verse turned toward the end: “Behold, he is coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him” (Revelation 1:7). The mourning Zechariah foretells is a mourning of repentance, poured out by God's own spirit of mercy.
“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the one who is my associate… Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered…”
- Reading
- God himself calls the sword against his shepherd, the one closest to him. The flock is scattered and tested, but a remnant comes through: “I will refine them as one refines silver,” and God will say, “They are my people” (13:9).
- Fulfilled
- On the night before he dies, Jesus quotes this verse to his disciples: “This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed’” (Matthew 26:31; Mark 14:27). They do scatter. But Jesus adds at once the promise of regathering: “after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee” (Matthew 26:32).
- For now
- The scattering is not the end of the flock. The Good Shepherd who was struck gathers it again.
“The LORD will be king over the whole earth…” (14:9)
- Reading
- The book ends with the day of the LORD. The nations gather against Jerusalem, and God comes to fight for it: “On that day God's feet will stand on the Mount of Olives” (14:4). There will be “one continuous day,” for “in the evening there will be light” (14:7). Water flows out of Jerusalem east and west (14:8), the survivors of the nations go up year after year to worship (14:16), and holiness covers everything, even the bells on the horses, which bear the words “Holy to the LORD” (14:20).
- Why future
- The angels at the Ascension, on the Mount of Olives, promise that Jesus “will return in the same way” (Acts 1:11–12). Revelation completes Zechariah's picture: the city needs no sun or lamp, for “Night will be no more” (Revelation 22:5); the river of life-giving water flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb (22:1); and the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord (11:15). Jesus too promised living water flowing from within those who believe (John 7:37–38).
- Note
- Zechariah's battle language belongs to the apocalyptic form. It is not a military forecast to be mapped onto modern nations, and this site does not do so. Its message is that the LORD alone is king, and that in the end everything ordinary will be holy.
Zechariah and the Passion
The Gospels return to Zechariah 9–14 again and again in the last week of Jesus' life.
| Zechariah | The Gospels and Revelation |
|---|
| The humble king on a donkey (9:9) | Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:5; John 12:15) |
| “By the blood of your covenant” (9:11) | “My blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:28) |
| Thirty pieces of silver thrown into the house of the LORD (11:12–13) | Judas' price and the potter's field (Matthew 26:15; 27:3–10) |
| The shepherd struck, the sheep scattered (13:7) | The disciples flee (Matthew 26:31, 56) |
| They look on him whom they have pierced (12:10) | The lance at the Cross; his coming on the clouds (John 19:37; Revelation 1:7) |
| A fountain opened for cleansing (13:1) | Blood and water from his side (John 19:34) |
| His feet on the Mount of Olives (14:4) | The Ascension from Olivet (Acts 1:11–12) |
Still to come on this pageFurther passages to add: the flying scroll and the woman in the basket carried to Shinar (5; compare
Revelation 17–18), Jerusalem as a city without walls with the LORD a wall of fire around it (2:5–9), ten men from every nation taking hold of a Jew's garment (8:20–23), “the blood of your covenant” and the prisoners of hope (9:11–12), and the worthless shepherd (11:15–17).
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